Varewulf A rather lengthy interlude this time, since I had a lot of bases to cover, and didn't feel like splitting it into two parts.
I tried to arrange the sections in roughly chronological order, but it might not 100% line up.
Please pretend any typos in the forum posts are intended.
It took a little while for the report from the Hunting Post to reach Elnatha, as it had to go through several stages first, but she sent out a scouting party towards the bandit camp as soon as she heard it. They knew exactly where the camp was. It was an old Hunting Post they'd had to abandon as control of the forest slipped away from them, but they hadn't had the resources to deal with it, or even to keep the bandits in check.
Keeping the road going was hard enough, and that was jeopardised as the bandit numbers grew. There had been talk about simply dispatching the army to clean the place up, and arrest the bandits. If they took them alive, then the respawning wouldn't matter so long as they got them to holding cells. Thankfully the world was kind enough to change people's respawn locations in certain circumstances, and imprisoning them was one of those. Though even the act of capturing someone who could use skills, potentially magic, and had access to an inventory pouch was not easy in the first place. There were shackles and other magic items that could neutralise skill usage, but people like that rarely had much reason to fear death, so it was hard to subdue them.
Driving them out by making it too hard for them to stay was often the best solution, even if that tended to lead to them becoming someone else's problem instead. It was a hard problem to solve considering how the world worked.
The scouting party had returned quickly, and delivered their report to the Palace Guard, who passed it on to the Princess Guard, who finally informed Elnatha.
They had arrived just before the wolves had started clearing out of the bandit camp, and hadn't dared to get too close until they left. By their report there had been over a hundred of them, but it had been hard to get an exact count due to how fast they moved.
The scouts had then gotten a quick look at the camp before any of the bandits started to respawn. There were three large holes in the wall that it seemed like the wolves had rushed in through, along with presumably flooding the entrance. The holes had been shattered open from the outside, and the wood was blackened around the edges. So it had to be done with either explosives, or magic. One of the buildings had been set on fire as well. Then they'd had to rapidly clear out as bandits started to gradually emerge from their barracks.
The camp would self-repair in a day's time, another mercy of the world, though in this case it was more annoying than helpful for the elves. Permanently destroying something in Moorhold wasn't impossible, but it required fulfilling certain requirements. It being sanctioned by the owner(s) was one possible condition, though for buildings it could also happen if they were no longer in use.
The First Princess pondered this information. Based on the report, and everything else they had learned so far, it felt like a reasonable conclusion that the Guardian Beast had made those holes. They knew it could use magic, but no one had suspected it was powerful enough to shatter a wooden wall. Even if it was merely one erected by bandits.
It had either secured the cooperation of the enigmatic boss of the west, or taken control of that territory as well. And the Night Ravens listened to it, which meant perhaps the Gale Crows did too. The levels of mobs in the west were not as high as in the north, but even so those magic birds should not be underestimated. And who knew what else the Beast might manage to win over to its side?
It seemed like something really dangerous had taken up residence in Ildhena. And they couldn't do anything about it without potentially turning the entire forest against them. And all of that in just a handful of days. Based on the Priestess's report it had been less than a week since the Guardian Beast had arrived.
Elnatha had acquired a translated copy of the legend, and had taken the time to read through it. When she considered how things had played out so far, the claims the legend made didn't seem that farfetched. The thing about how it commanded the very trees themselves hadn't happened yet, but it could turn into a tree, so perhaps it was merely a matter of time.
She sighed. It might have just been a whim at first, but she was feeling increasingly grateful she had pushed for this alliance. If they lost it, then the elves might become trapped as all of Ildhena became ruled by beasts. Or perhaps by a Beast. Her initial motivations may have been selfish, but she did truly care for her country.
It might be time to seek an official audience with her Mother. Thankfully the Queen had decided to not interfere so far, and seemed to be generally in favour of the alliance, but Elnatha still felt the two of them should have a serious talk about this. She wanted to truly impress upon her Mother how important this might be.
* * *
The Wanderers were back, but Mirielle hadn't seen much interest in the alliance from them yet. She knew that they didn't visit the Temple much in the first place, but maybe when the new ones came in from Meerna, they would stop by before doing anything else.
Thankfully they were having more luck spreading the word among the Residents, and there had been several who had expressed excitement about being able to go into Nyolund again. There were a lot of herbs, other plants, and mushrooms that were abundant there, and even if you couldn't take on the deer, there was other game to hunt too. Some were a little sceptical, but considering it was an official statement by the Temple of the Moon, most people accepted it.
Then towards the evening she had received a message that Sara wanted to speak with her, or someone else if she was busy, but she wasn't about to leave it to anyone else. She hurried out to the Hunting Post, and found Sara sitting on the road north of it. The people at the Post seemed a little nervous, but Mirielle was happy to see Sara again, even if they had met just that morning.
They went a little off the road in between some trees, so no one could easily 'overhear' their conversation.
"Sorry for dragging you out here," Sara wrote on her board.
"No need to be," Mirielle replied. "I'm always happy to talk. Did you like the food?"
"It was great," Sara wrote. "I hadn't really realised how much I missed the taste of food until I had some again."
"Missed? Oh, right..." Mirielle had fallen into the trap of thinking of Sara as just a mob again while considering what food to bring. Mobs didn't eat, so she had no idea what they might like, and hadn't thought to ask Sara what she might like. She had tried just bringing a bit of everything. "I guess you ate food like normal in your old life."
"Yes. It's been weird not having the need, or urge to eat since I got here. In some ways it's convenient, but it also feels like I'm missing out on something," Sara wrote.
"So was there anything you particularly liked?" Mirielle might as well try to fish some information out of her while she had the opportunity.
Sara paused for a moment, then began scribbling. "I'm not sure, since everything was so delicious after so long of having nothing. I'll probably get a better idea once it doesn't seem so novel any longer. But... hm... the pie was good, and so was the leaf-wrapped fish. If there was anything I was missing, it's that I used to really like smoked meat, but I don't know if my tongue is the same any longer."
Mirielle made a mental note of it.
Sara quickly cleared the board, and started writing anew.
"Anyway, the reason I called for you is to let you know that the wolf boss of the west has agreed to join the alliance."
Mirielle's eyes went wide. "Really? Already?" She had hoped that would happen eventually, but not this soon.
"It wasn't entirely planned, but she came asking to see me today, and we ended up talking. She even gave me a tour of her zone, where she told me about the bandit camp there. She felt annoyed that the number of bandits has been growing even since they arrived, since they were claiming the surrounding woods as their hunting grounds. So I suggested we do a raid together."
"A raid? On the bandits?" Mirielle wasn't sure if she was just misunderstanding this or not.
Sara started writing, then hesitated for a moment before she kept going.
"Yes. The west boss and I flooded the camp with about a hundred wolves each, and the Night Ravens, and Gale Crows joined in. I hadn't intended to tell the birds, but when they came asking I knew they were just going to follow me around anyway, so I let them in on the plan. They are definitely too clever for anyone's good."
"Oh." Mirielle wasn't sure what else to say. She couldn't even picture what this raid would have looked like. The bandit camp was considered a raid location itself, so this was like a raid boss raiding another raid boss. Two on one, even.
"I was able to get her to agree to join the alliance after dangling the bait that it might be even more interesting if we let the elves join us on a raid," Sara wrote. "We had a lot of fun, so we're thinking of maybe doing another one in two or three days. If a group of elves wants to come with us, we're open to that."
"I... I'll certainly relay the message." Mirielle was tempted to go herself, since she wanted to be in a party with Sara, even if they couldn't make it official via the party system. She hadn't actually gotten to see Sara fight much during the survey mission, but she liked the idea of being her support.
"Wait." She suddenly realised something. "That means you've met the boss in the west. We've never actually gotten a good look at it- at her," she corrected herself. "Could you tell me more?"
Sara tapped her wooden fingers against her wooden trunk for a bit before writing an answer.
"I'll have to ask her if she's okay with you knowing. If you don't already know, then I don't want to give away her private information without her consent."
Mirielle didn't really understand that sentiment, but maybe it was something that made more sense in Sara's old life.
"Oh! I also wanted to let you know that we've been spreading the word among the citizens about the alliance, and the flower accessories. We've even sold some, so you might be seeing people show up soon," she said. "There hasn't been much interest from the Wanderers yet, though."
"My wolves mentioned they've seen a few people walking around with the symbols today. I'm guessing they were Residents, then. There were more without, which might have been Wanderers, or at least Adventurers. I guess their numbers may increase soon. I wonder if the Wanderers will buy the symbols too. I haven't interacted with them beyond fighting since I got here, so I'm curious what they are like. I hope they at least behave if they intend to wear the symbol," Sara wrote.
"Don't worry," Mirielle said confidently. "We're prepared to punish them harshly if they try to harm you."
"Thank you." Sara drew a little smiley face on the board. "I'm going to head back, and get some rest. A lot more happened today than I thought it would, and only now that it's all done do I realise I feel rather tired. I might take it easy tomorrow."
"Okay." Mirielle stretched. She'd started to feel a little stiff. "Rest well, Sara."
"You too, Mirielle," Sara wrote, then put away the board, returned to wolf form, and ran off.
Mirielle figured she should report this to Luneria as soon as she got back.
* * *
^[ World Zones ]
^^[ Nyolund - North Great Forest of Ildhena ]
^^^[ Reputation Bug? ]
[ Thread Creator: Marlingo ]
I was killing wolves up in the north forest with my friends, and noticed we were losing reputation with the elves. Isn't it supposed to go in the other direction? Did the update come with new bugs? - 02/12/2041
[ Atan Amani ]
not sure if it's related but I noticed on the quest board at the ad guild there aren't any wolf killing quests any longer
thought maybe they were just all taken - 02/12/2041
[ Frengzy ]
>Did the update come with new bugs?
Did you file a bug report? I had a look through the patch notes to see if it said anything, but I couldn't see anything about it. - 02/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Marlingo ]
>Did you file a bug report?
Yeah, I just got a reply on it. A weird one. It says to ask the elves. - 02/12/2041
[ Frengzy ]
>It says to ask the elves.
Alright, I asked around over in Larien, and they told me to ask at the temple, where they told me that the Guardian Beast has returned to the north forest. I have no idea what that means, but apparently I have to go to the main temple in Komeron for more answers. - 02/12/2041
[ Grun Hardbase ]
> go to the main temple in Komeron for more answers
srsly?
no one but the priests go to the temples to get an occupation. - 02/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Marlingo ]
Okay, since that's our best lead, I decided to go ask. Honestly never been to any of them, since there's no point for my class to go there, but it's quite fancy. Apparently there's a moon goddess and stuff. I have not been paying attention to the lore of this game.
Anyway, after asking around I was told about this guardian beast. Apparently it's taken control of the wolves up there, and made an alliance with the elves in Komeron. They were even selling flower accessories. If you wear them when you into the north forest, the wolves won't attack you. Supposedly they might even help you out if you're in trouble.
I feel like some weird story flag has been triggered here. I want to try this out. Though they also made sure to warn me that if I attack the wolves while wearing the flower, there will be serious consequences, whatever that means. - 02/12/2041
[ Frengzy ]
> there will be serious consequences
Probably just more reputation loss, but I'm not gonna test it out.
If there's a new raid level boss, then someone is gonna try to raid it. I'm just gonna see what happens to them. - 02/12/2041
[ Atan Amani ]
> someone is gonna try to raid it
sure but they're not gonna wear the flower to do that are they
maybe fighting the boss is fine so long as you don't flower - 02/12/2041
[ Narlin Gerty ]
>maybe fighting the boss is fine so long as you don't flower
OP was still losing rep regardless, so it might not be fine. But yeah, I think testing the consequences for breaking the flower deal would be a different thing. Is anyone willing to try? - 02/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Marlingo ]
I'm curious, but since we don't know how much rep we lose, I don't wanna be a guinea pig. I'm trying to get my elf rep up, not down. Maybe there's some way to help out this alliance? If it's that important, it has to give some decent rep. - 02/12/2041
[ Grun Hardbase ]
how did they make an alliance in the first place? can this new boss talk? - 02/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Marlingo ]
>can this new boss talk?
They didn't say, but they have a lot of druids around here. They can talk to mobs, right? - 02/12/2041
[ Atan Amani ]
>They can talk to mobs, right?
sure but aggro mobs and bosses don't want to talk
only neutral ones and they don't really conversation that much - 02/12/2041
[ Frengzy ]
I don't think you could make an alliance without talking, so they somehow pulled it off. I'm guessing there's some lore reason why it works. Probably related to why they call it a "Guardian Beast". Maybe I should go back to Komeron to investigate. - 02/12/2041
* * *
The Temple of the Moon started to see more interest from the Wanderers about the alliance, and the Guardian Beast the very day after she had spoken to Sara. Mirielle was more than happy to tell them about it, though of course she was careful to not let Sara's name slip.
Someone who had especially stuck in her mind was a trio consisting of a scholarly-looking elf Mage, an excited owlkin Druid, and a stylish catkin Dancer. It was the first time she had seen a Dancer, since there were not many Wanderers who chose the Performer class, and even less who were able to level it up fast.
The three of them ended up buying the flower accessories, and said they were going to go take a look in the woods. Mirielle wished them well, and wondered if they were going to come across Sara. She had seemed curious about meeting Wanderers, so hopefully she would have some good encounters.
Even some of the sceptics among the Temple's members were slowly being won around, especially after some of the local Residents came back to thank them after having had a safe trip into the woods, and donated some of what they had been able to gather.
A pair of youngsters had even reported that they'd been saved by a pack of wolves, along with a raven after accidentally coming across one of the dreaded deer. Those things got angry if you so much as looked at them.
The third day there was even more interest from several Wanderers. Apparently word was spreading fast, and things seemed to be going really well.
* * *
^[ Monster Information ]
^^[ New Boss In Ildhena ]
[ Thread Creator: Barg Nowl ]
While there was no mention of it in the patch notes, there is now a new boss in the elf area after the update. The Residents themselves have confirmed it. We don't have a ton of details yet, but I'll fill you in on what we've collected.
They call it the Guardian Beast. It leads the wolves up north, so it seems safe to assume that it's also a wolf type, like the big one down south. While the deer and moose bosses remain in their areas, we know the Warg in the south likes to wander around, so it's possible the north boss does the same. No player has reported seeing it yet, though.
It can apparently use magic, so it's possible it's actually a werewolf, but it could also just be some special unique boss type.
This will most likely be a raid tier boss, since we'll probably have to fight our way through a lot of wolves to get to it. We do have reports that the wolves have gotten harder up in the north forest after the patch, more on par with how they are in the south.
That's unfortunately all we've figured out so far. - 03/12/2041
[ La Bumba ]
Have you sent people in to scout? - 03/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Barg Nowl ]
>Have you sent people in to scout?
No, not yet. We've been discussing in my guild how best to go about it. We only have a few people with Erase Presence, but walking at stealth speed through the woods to look for a roaming boss isn't tempting any of them. We might just have to go in blind. - 03/12/2041
[ Scott McScot ]
At the temple in Komeron they're selling accessories that'll let you walk through the north woods without the wolves attacking you. I tried it out yesterday, and they really left me alone. They moved away when I tried to walk up to them, but they didn't attack. - 03/12/2041
[ Gongle ]
whoa srsly? that sounds great for gatherers, i gotta let my guild know. - 03/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Barg Nowl ]
Yeah, that would solve the scouting problem. We can just send a couple of parties to look at the east side, since that's where the boss is most likely to be. We already know the deer boss is in the north-west, and most of the wolves are in the east. How much are they? - 03/12/2041
[ Scott McScot ]
>How much are they?
Just 5 silver each. - 03/12/2041
[ Sippy Drippy ]
>Just 5 silver each.
rly? thats nuthin. wat about just buyin dem for the whole riad, and walk rite up to the boss before attackin? - 03/12/2041
[ Scott McScot ]
>wat about just buyin dem for the whole riad, and walk rite up to the boss before attackin?
I was warned when buying them that it's part of an alliance, and if I did anything to endanger it, there would be serious consequences. I'm not sure what that means, but they really emphasised that point. - 03/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Barg Nowl ]
> there would be serious consequences
The Residents remember our actions, so it's possible a direct violation like that would lock us out of the city. Maybe not that serious, but there was the guy who tried to attack a prince in Eronite, and now he can't get into Hilmgrad any longer.
I don't really like exploits like that anyway. It sounds like it should be fine to use for scouting, but I wouldn't allow them in my raid, at least. I'll hold a meeting with my guild to decide who to send as scouts.
We'll post recruitment info for a raid afterwards, so stay tuned! - 03/12/2041
[ La Bumba ]
Aye aye! - 03/12/2041
[ Sippy Drippy ]
aye aye! - 03/12/2041
[ Per Smere ]
Aye aye! - 03/12/2041
[ Fish A La Fish ]
aye aye - 03/12/2041
* * *
In the Guild of Unusual Taxonomy's temporary Komeron headquarters more members had arrived since update went live.
"Are you really joining this raid, Scott?" Le Hoot asked.
"Yes!" Scott McScot seemed a little too excited about the prospect. "I'll get to see how much the wolf has grown."
Le Hoot sighed. "I'm sure there are other ways to get to see it," she said.
"Getting to see what it's like in combat is very valuable information," Scott insisted.
"We're not sure if this Guardian Beast is the same wolf in the first place," Sa Lamba pointed out. She had arrived here on the first day after the patch, but Scott hadn't made it until the second. All three of them had gone to the Temple of the Moon to learn more that day, and had a brief trip into the forest to see if the accessories actually worked. And they had, which all of them found exciting. Sa Lamba had been a little sad that the wolves wouldn't let her pet them, though.
She had wondered if it was possible to bribe them with food, but Le Hoot knew that mobs didn't eat unless they were tamed, so she wasn't sure if that would work.
"I have to agree with Scott that there's a good chance that it is. All my investigation so far points to it," Le Hoot said. "That said, I don't agree with joining this raid. If you're doing that, then go without me, Scott." She was much more intrigued with how this alliance implied that they had talked with the Guardian Beast. As a Druid she of course had Commune With Animals, and she dying to actually go out there, and say hi to it. She just wasn't sure how to arrange a meeting, or if she even could. Maybe the Temple would know.
"That's fine," Scott said. "Engraham, and Burnor have already agreed to come, and we're not sure how many spots we'll be able to secure in the first place. I imagine competition is going to be stiff when we're talking about a new boss."
"Eh, I imagine there's just as many who want to wait for more information before they go in," Laloti said. "The first group is basically going to be guinea pigs, right?" She had come to Komeron as well, in large part because she had been part of the group who had watched the wolf play around in the lake, and was more interested in meeting it, than fighting it.
Grace would be arriving that evening, completing the foursome. Since she was actually an Acolyte of the Temple of the Moon, she might be able to get even more information from them. At least that was what Le Hoot was hoping for.
While it was for somewhat different reasons, the various members of the Guild were looking forward to the next day.
* * *
The employees at Virtue-World Entertainment had been scratching their heads at the state of Hanoleav in the days after the update went live. The developers had left monitoring the world solely to Aina while the players were offline, and the studio was implementing the updates. So when they finally turned everything back on, and had a look around to see if they could spot any problems, the main one that stood out was Hanoleav, and Komeron in particular.
There were some other issues elsewhere that weren't too hard to smooth over, but something significant had happened in Komeron, and Ildhena while the server was 'down', and they weren't sure how to fix it. Or if they could. Or even should.
Somehow a Progression Quest had been cleared, and that wasn't something they could simply roll back, not without tampering with quite lot of the Residents. They knew Residents were also capable of completing quests, but this chain they hadn't expected to start for a while yet.
Digging into why, and how led them to the Temple of the Moon. For some reason they were creating, and selling special accessories for an alliance. Following the thread of who the alliance was with, it turned out to be the boss of the north zone, Nyolund. A boss no one would admit to putting into the game. The studio was generally fine with the developers sneaking in Easter Eggs, but this was on a scale far beyond that.
Shockingly according to Aina's logs the system itself had selected a mob it deemed worthy, and had upgraded it into a boss that took control of all the wolves in the zone. They'd spent hours debugging, and trouble-shooting to figure out how this had happened, only to realise that the system technically had the capability, and permission to do this. It just wasn't supposed to make such decisions, but it was unclear what they might break if they tried to revoke that permission.
Introducing a wolf boss to Nyolund had been put on hold in order to make the zone more friendly to levelling than Sholan was. But now that it was there, they couldn't really roll that back either, or remove it without disturbing the new balance that had been set up. If it hadn't formed an alliance with the elves, and made itself known, then maybe they could have quietly removed it, but that ship had sailed. And even if they got rid of this boss, they had no guarantee the system wouldn't simply do the same thing once again.
There was also the mystery of what it meant by having deemed a mob 'worthy', and how this mob had communicated with the elves in the first place. They could speak via Commune With Animals, but boss mobs were not supposed to be interested in that, so why had this one decided to be different?
The system had been acting oddly ever since the launch of the game. During beta the biggest problem had been the Residents' developing AI trying to act beyond the system's influence, and maybe that had triggered some sort of reaction in the system that had only started to show its symptoms once the game was past 1.0. It was hard to predict how the mobs' AI scripts had grown as well. It was quite possible that some of them had become anomalous in various ways.
Regardless they had been forced to agree with Aina's assessment. This wasn't really something they could easily 'fix'. There was just no telling what else might break if they tampered too much with this. It might not be doable without starting the entire world over, and no one really wanted to do that.
So the team was divided between those who feared this meant the game was falling apart, and those who were excited because such dynamic developments were already happening. The AI team had predicted that sooner or later things would start to take on a life of their own. It was just that no one had thought it would happen a mere month after launch.
In the end they'd had to make a quick official decision on where they stood on this, and the winning votes went towards accepting it. The Residents of Komeron seemed like they were excited about this, so the best decision was to just support them, and let this continue to develop naturally. For a certain definition of 'naturally'.
The players had so far reacted positively to their official stance, which was basically pretending this was what they had intended all along. Or at least not denying it should anyone make that assumption.
At least the corvids weren't spamming them with as many reports any longer, but the development in Hanoleav was still fuelling Kelly's desire to give the corvids the ability to speak to people. Everyone had a feeling that sooner or later she would get her way.
Varewulf A rather lengthy interlude this time, since I had a lot of bases to cover, and didn't feel like splitting it into two parts.
I tried to arrange the sections in roughly chronological order, but it might not 100% line up.
Please pretend any typos in the forum posts are intended.
It took a little while for the report from the Hunting Post to reach Elnatha, as it had to go through several stages first, but she sent out a scouting party towards the bandit camp as soon as she heard it. They knew exactly where the camp was. It was an old Hunting Post they'd had to abandon as control of the forest slipped away from them, but they hadn't had the resources to deal with it, or even to keep the bandits in check.
Keeping the road going was hard enough, and that was jeopardised as the bandit numbers grew. There had been talk about simply dispatching the army to clean the place up, and arrest the bandits. If they took them alive, then the respawning wouldn't matter so long as they got them to holding cells. Thankfully the world was kind enough to change people's respawn locations in certain circumstances, and imprisoning them was one of those. Though even the act of capturing someone who could use skills, potentially magic, and had access to an inventory pouch was not easy in the first place. There were shackles and other magic items that could neutralise skill usage, but people like that rarely had much reason to fear death, so it was hard to subdue them.
Driving them out by making it too hard for them to stay was often the best solution, even if that tended to lead to them becoming someone else's problem instead. It was a hard problem to solve considering how the world worked.
The scouting party had returned quickly, and delivered their report to the Palace Guard, who passed it on to the Princess Guard, who finally informed Elnatha.
They had arrived just before the wolves had started clearing out of the bandit camp, and hadn't dared to get too close until they left. By their report there had been over a hundred of them, but it had been hard to get an exact count due to how fast they moved.
The scouts had then gotten a quick look at the camp before any of the bandits started to respawn. There were three large holes in the wall that it seemed like the wolves had rushed in through, along with presumably flooding the entrance. The holes had been shattered open from the outside, and the wood was blackened around the edges. So it had to be done with either explosives, or magic. One of the buildings had been set on fire as well. Then they'd had to rapidly clear out as bandits started to gradually emerge from their barracks.
The camp would self-repair in a day's time, another mercy of the world, though in this case it was more annoying than helpful for the elves. Permanently destroying something in Moorhold wasn't impossible, but it required fulfilling certain requirements. It being sanctioned by the owner(s) was one possible condition, though for buildings it could also happen if they were no longer in use.
The First Princess pondered this information. Based on the report, and everything else they had learned so far, it felt like a reasonable conclusion that the Guardian Beast had made those holes. They knew it could use magic, but no one had suspected it was powerful enough to shatter a wooden wall. Even if it was merely one erected by bandits.
It had either secured the cooperation of the enigmatic boss of the west, or taken control of that territory as well. And the Night Ravens listened to it, which meant perhaps the Gale Crows did too. The levels of mobs in the west were not as high as in the north, but even so those magic birds should not be underestimated. And who knew what else the Beast might manage to win over to its side?
It seemed like something really dangerous had taken up residence in Ildhena. And they couldn't do anything about it without potentially turning the entire forest against them. And all of that in just a handful of days. Based on the Priestess's report it had been less than a week since the Guardian Beast had arrived.
Elnatha had acquired a translated copy of the legend, and had taken the time to read through it. When she considered how things had played out so far, the claims the legend made didn't seem that farfetched. The thing about how it commanded the very trees themselves hadn't happened yet, but it could turn into a tree, so perhaps it was merely a matter of time.
She sighed. It might have just been a whim at first, but she was feeling increasingly grateful she had pushed for this alliance. If they lost it, then the elves might become trapped as all of Ildhena became ruled by beasts. Or perhaps by a Beast. Her initial motivations may have been selfish, but she did truly care for her country.
It might be time to seek an official audience with her Mother. Thankfully the Queen had decided to not interfere so far, and seemed to be generally in favour of the alliance, but Elnatha still felt the two of them should have a serious talk about this. She wanted to truly impress upon her Mother how important this might be.
* * *
The Wanderers were back, but Mirielle hadn't seen much interest in the alliance from them yet. She knew that they didn't visit the Temple much in the first place, but maybe when the new ones came in from Meerna, they would stop by before doing anything else.
Thankfully they were having more luck spreading the word among the Residents, and there had been several who had expressed excitement about being able to go into Nyolund again. There were a lot of herbs, other plants, and mushrooms that were abundant there, and even if you couldn't take on the deer, there was other game to hunt too. Some were a little sceptical, but considering it was an official statement by the Temple of the Moon, most people accepted it.
Then towards the evening she had received a message that Sara wanted to speak with her, or someone else if she was busy, but she wasn't about to leave it to anyone else. She hurried out to the Hunting Post, and found Sara sitting on the road north of it. The people at the Post seemed a little nervous, but Mirielle was happy to see Sara again, even if they had met just that morning.
They went a little off the road in between some trees, so no one could easily 'overhear' their conversation.
"Sorry for dragging you out here," Sara wrote on her board.
"No need to be," Mirielle replied. "I'm always happy to talk. Did you like the food?"
"It was great," Sara wrote. "I hadn't really realised how much I missed the taste of food until I had some again."
"Missed? Oh, right..." Mirielle had fallen into the trap of thinking of Sara as just a mob again while considering what food to bring. Mobs didn't eat, so she had no idea what they might like, and hadn't thought to ask Sara what she might like. She had tried just bringing a bit of everything. "I guess you ate food like normal in your old life."
"Yes. It's been weird not having the need, or urge to eat since I got here. In some ways it's convenient, but it also feels like I'm missing out on something," Sara wrote.
"So was there anything you particularly liked?" Mirielle might as well try to fish some information out of her while she had the opportunity.
Sara paused for a moment, then began scribbling. "I'm not sure, since everything was so delicious after so long of having nothing. I'll probably get a better idea once it doesn't seem so novel any longer. But... hm... the pie was good, and so was the leaf-wrapped fish. If there was anything I was missing, it's that I used to really like smoked meat, but I don't know if my tongue is the same any longer."
Mirielle made a mental note of it.
Sara quickly cleared the board, and started writing anew.
"Anyway, the reason I called for you is to let you know that the wolf boss of the west has agreed to join the alliance."
Mirielle's eyes went wide. "Really? Already?" She had hoped that would happen eventually, but not this soon.
"It wasn't entirely planned, but she came asking to see me today, and we ended up talking. She even gave me a tour of her zone, where she told me about the bandit camp there. She felt annoyed that the number of bandits has been growing even since they arrived, since they were claiming the surrounding woods as their hunting grounds. So I suggested we do a raid together."
"A raid? On the bandits?" Mirielle wasn't sure if she was just misunderstanding this or not.
Sara started writing, then hesitated for a moment before she kept going.
"Yes. The west boss and I flooded the camp with about a hundred wolves each, and the Night Ravens, and Gale Crows joined in. I hadn't intended to tell the birds, but when they came asking I knew they were just going to follow me around anyway, so I let them in on the plan. They are definitely too clever for anyone's good."
"Oh." Mirielle wasn't sure what else to say. She couldn't even picture what this raid would have looked like. The bandit camp was considered a raid location itself, so this was like a raid boss raiding another raid boss. Two on one, even.
"I was able to get her to agree to join the alliance after dangling the bait that it might be even more interesting if we let the elves join us on a raid," Sara wrote. "We had a lot of fun, so we're thinking of maybe doing another one in two or three days. If a group of elves wants to come with us, we're open to that."
"I... I'll certainly relay the message." Mirielle was tempted to go herself, since she wanted to be in a party with Sara, even if they couldn't make it official via the party system. She hadn't actually gotten to see Sara fight much during the survey mission, but she liked the idea of being her support.
"Wait." She suddenly realised something. "That means you've met the boss in the west. We've never actually gotten a good look at it- at her," she corrected herself. "Could you tell me more?"
Sara tapped her wooden fingers against her wooden trunk for a bit before writing an answer.
"I'll have to ask her if she's okay with you knowing. If you don't already know, then I don't want to give away her private information without her consent."
Mirielle didn't really understand that sentiment, but maybe it was something that made more sense in Sara's old life.
"Oh! I also wanted to let you know that we've been spreading the word among the citizens about the alliance, and the flower accessories. We've even sold some, so you might be seeing people show up soon," she said. "There hasn't been much interest from the Wanderers yet, though."
"My wolves mentioned they've seen a few people walking around with the symbols today. I'm guessing they were Residents, then. There were more without, which might have been Wanderers, or at least Adventurers. I guess their numbers may increase soon. I wonder if the Wanderers will buy the symbols too. I haven't interacted with them beyond fighting since I got here, so I'm curious what they are like. I hope they at least behave if they intend to wear the symbol," Sara wrote.
"Don't worry," Mirielle said confidently. "We're prepared to punish them harshly if they try to harm you."
"Thank you." Sara drew a little smiley face on the board. "I'm going to head back, and get some rest. A lot more happened today than I thought it would, and only now that it's all done do I realise I feel rather tired. I might take it easy tomorrow."
"Okay." Mirielle stretched. She'd started to feel a little stiff. "Rest well, Sara."
"You too, Mirielle," Sara wrote, then put away the board, returned to wolf form, and ran off.
Mirielle figured she should report this to Luneria as soon as she got back.
* * *
^[ World Zones ]
^^[ Nyolund - North Great Forest of Ildhena ]
^^^[ Reputation Bug? ]
[ Thread Creator: Marlingo ]
I was killing wolves up in the north forest with my friends, and noticed we were losing reputation with the elves. Isn't it supposed to go in the other direction? Did the update come with new bugs? - 02/12/2041
[ Atan Amani ]
not sure if it's related but I noticed on the quest board at the ad guild there aren't any wolf killing quests any longer
thought maybe they were just all taken - 02/12/2041
[ Frengzy ]
>Did the update come with new bugs?
Did you file a bug report? I had a look through the patch notes to see if it said anything, but I couldn't see anything about it. - 02/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Marlingo ]
>Did you file a bug report?
Yeah, I just got a reply on it. A weird one. It says to ask the elves. - 02/12/2041
[ Frengzy ]
>It says to ask the elves.
Alright, I asked around over in Larien, and they told me to ask at the temple, where they told me that the Guardian Beast has returned to the north forest. I have no idea what that means, but apparently I have to go to the main temple in Komeron for more answers. - 02/12/2041
[ Grun Hardbase ]
> go to the main temple in Komeron for more answers
srsly?
no one but the priests go to the temples to get an occupation. - 02/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Marlingo ]
Okay, since that's our best lead, I decided to go ask. Honestly never been to any of them, since there's no point for my class to go there, but it's quite fancy. Apparently there's a moon goddess and stuff. I have not been paying attention to the lore of this game.
Anyway, after asking around I was told about this guardian beast. Apparently it's taken control of the wolves up there, and made an alliance with the elves in Komeron. They were even selling flower accessories. If you wear them when you into the north forest, the wolves won't attack you. Supposedly they might even help you out if you're in trouble.
I feel like some weird story flag has been triggered here. I want to try this out. Though they also made sure to warn me that if I attack the wolves while wearing the flower, there will be serious consequences, whatever that means. - 02/12/2041
[ Frengzy ]
> there will be serious consequences
Probably just more reputation loss, but I'm not gonna test it out.
If there's a new raid level boss, then someone is gonna try to raid it. I'm just gonna see what happens to them. - 02/12/2041
[ Atan Amani ]
> someone is gonna try to raid it
sure but they're not gonna wear the flower to do that are they
maybe fighting the boss is fine so long as you don't flower - 02/12/2041
[ Narlin Gerty ]
>maybe fighting the boss is fine so long as you don't flower
OP was still losing rep regardless, so it might not be fine. But yeah, I think testing the consequences for breaking the flower deal would be a different thing. Is anyone willing to try? - 02/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Marlingo ]
I'm curious, but since we don't know how much rep we lose, I don't wanna be a guinea pig. I'm trying to get my elf rep up, not down. Maybe there's some way to help out this alliance? If it's that important, it has to give some decent rep. - 02/12/2041
[ Grun Hardbase ]
how did they make an alliance in the first place? can this new boss talk? - 02/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Marlingo ]
>can this new boss talk?
They didn't say, but they have a lot of druids around here. They can talk to mobs, right? - 02/12/2041
[ Atan Amani ]
>They can talk to mobs, right?
sure but aggro mobs and bosses don't want to talk
only neutral ones and they don't really conversation that much - 02/12/2041
[ Frengzy ]
I don't think you could make an alliance without talking, so they somehow pulled it off. I'm guessing there's some lore reason why it works. Probably related to why they call it a "Guardian Beast". Maybe I should go back to Komeron to investigate. - 02/12/2041
* * *
The Temple of the Moon started to see more interest from the Wanderers about the alliance, and the Guardian Beast the very day after she had spoken to Sara. Mirielle was more than happy to tell them about it, though of course she was careful to not let Sara's name slip.
Someone who had especially stuck in her mind was a trio consisting of a scholarly-looking elf Mage, an excited owlkin Druid, and a stylish catkin Dancer. It was the first time she had seen a Dancer, since there were not many Wanderers who chose the Performer class, and even less who were able to level it up fast.
The three of them ended up buying the flower accessories, and said they were going to go take a look in the woods. Mirielle wished them well, and wondered if they were going to come across Sara. She had seemed curious about meeting Wanderers, so hopefully she would have some good encounters.
Even some of the sceptics among the Temple's members were slowly being won around, especially after some of the local Residents came back to thank them after having had a safe trip into the woods, and donated some of what they had been able to gather.
A pair of youngsters had even reported that they'd been saved by a pack of wolves, along with a raven after accidentally coming across one of the dreaded deer. Those things got angry if you so much as looked at them.
The third day there was even more interest from several Wanderers. Apparently word was spreading fast, and things seemed to be going really well.
* * *
^[ Monster Information ]
^^[ New Boss In Ildhena ]
[ Thread Creator: Barg Nowl ]
While there was no mention of it in the patch notes, there is now a new boss in the elf area after the update. The Residents themselves have confirmed it. We don't have a ton of details yet, but I'll fill you in on what we've collected.
They call it the Guardian Beast. It leads the wolves up north, so it seems safe to assume that it's also a wolf type, like the big one down south. While the deer and moose bosses remain in their areas, we know the Warg in the south likes to wander around, so it's possible the north boss does the same. No player has reported seeing it yet, though.
It can apparently use magic, so it's possible it's actually a werewolf, but it could also just be some special unique boss type.
This will most likely be a raid tier boss, since we'll probably have to fight our way through a lot of wolves to get to it. We do have reports that the wolves have gotten harder up in the north forest after the patch, more on par with how they are in the south.
That's unfortunately all we've figured out so far. - 03/12/2041
[ La Bumba ]
Have you sent people in to scout? - 03/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Barg Nowl ]
>Have you sent people in to scout?
No, not yet. We've been discussing in my guild how best to go about it. We only have a few people with Erase Presence, but walking at stealth speed through the woods to look for a roaming boss isn't tempting any of them. We might just have to go in blind. - 03/12/2041
[ Scott McScot ]
At the temple in Komeron they're selling accessories that'll let you walk through the north woods without the wolves attacking you. I tried it out yesterday, and they really left me alone. They moved away when I tried to walk up to them, but they didn't attack. - 03/12/2041
[ Gongle ]
whoa srsly? that sounds great for gatherers, i gotta let my guild know. - 03/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Barg Nowl ]
Yeah, that would solve the scouting problem. We can just send a couple of parties to look at the east side, since that's where the boss is most likely to be. We already know the deer boss is in the north-west, and most of the wolves are in the east. How much are they? - 03/12/2041
[ Scott McScot ]
>How much are they?
Just 5 silver each. - 03/12/2041
[ Sippy Drippy ]
>Just 5 silver each.
rly? thats nuthin. wat about just buyin dem for the whole riad, and walk rite up to the boss before attackin? - 03/12/2041
[ Scott McScot ]
>wat about just buyin dem for the whole riad, and walk rite up to the boss before attackin?
I was warned when buying them that it's part of an alliance, and if I did anything to endanger it, there would be serious consequences. I'm not sure what that means, but they really emphasised that point. - 03/12/2041
[ Thread Creator: Barg Nowl ]
> there would be serious consequences
The Residents remember our actions, so it's possible a direct violation like that would lock us out of the city. Maybe not that serious, but there was the guy who tried to attack a prince in Eronite, and now he can't get into Hilmgrad any longer.
I don't really like exploits like that anyway. It sounds like it should be fine to use for scouting, but I wouldn't allow them in my raid, at least. I'll hold a meeting with my guild to decide who to send as scouts.
We'll post recruitment info for a raid afterwards, so stay tuned! - 03/12/2041
[ La Bumba ]
Aye aye! - 03/12/2041
[ Sippy Drippy ]
aye aye! - 03/12/2041
[ Per Smere ]
Aye aye! - 03/12/2041
[ Fish A La Fish ]
aye aye - 03/12/2041
* * *
In the Guild of Unusual Taxonomy's temporary Komeron headquarters more members had arrived since update went live.
"Are you really joining this raid, Scott?" Le Hoot asked.
"Yes!" Scott McScot seemed a little too excited about the prospect. "I'll get to see how much the wolf has grown."
Le Hoot sighed. "I'm sure there are other ways to get to see it," she said.
"Getting to see what it's like in combat is very valuable information," Scott insisted.
"We're not sure if this Guardian Beast is the same wolf in the first place," Sa Lamba pointed out. She had arrived here on the first day after the patch, but Scott hadn't made it until the second. All three of them had gone to the Temple of the Moon to learn more that day, and had a brief trip into the forest to see if the accessories actually worked. And they had, which all of them found exciting. Sa Lamba had been a little sad that the wolves wouldn't let her pet them, though.
She had wondered if it was possible to bribe them with food, but Le Hoot knew that mobs didn't eat unless they were tamed, so she wasn't sure if that would work.
"I have to agree with Scott that there's a good chance that it is. All my investigation so far points to it," Le Hoot said. "That said, I don't agree with joining this raid. If you're doing that, then go without me, Scott." She was much more intrigued with how this alliance implied that they had talked with the Guardian Beast. As a Druid she of course had Commune With Animals, and she dying to actually go out there, and say hi to it. She just wasn't sure how to arrange a meeting, or if she even could. Maybe the Temple would know.
"That's fine," Scott said. "Engraham, and Burnor have already agreed to come, and we're not sure how many spots we'll be able to secure in the first place. I imagine competition is going to be stiff when we're talking about a new boss."
"Eh, I imagine there's just as many who want to wait for more information before they go in," Laloti said. "The first group is basically going to be guinea pigs, right?" She had come to Komeron as well, in large part because she had been part of the group who had watched the wolf play around in the lake, and was more interested in meeting it, than fighting it.
Grace would be arriving that evening, completing the foursome. Since she was actually an Acolyte of the Temple of the Moon, she might be able to get even more information from them. At least that was what Le Hoot was hoping for.
While it was for somewhat different reasons, the various members of the Guild were looking forward to the next day.
* * *
The employees at Virtue-World Entertainment had been scratching their heads at the state of Hanoleav in the days after the update went live. The developers had left monitoring the world solely to Aina while the players were offline, and the studio was implementing the updates. So when they finally turned everything back on, and had a look around to see if they could spot any problems, the main one that stood out was Hanoleav, and Komeron in particular.
There were some other issues elsewhere that weren't too hard to smooth over, but something significant had happened in Komeron, and Ildhena while the server was 'down', and they weren't sure how to fix it. Or if they could. Or even should.
Somehow a Progression Quest had been cleared, and that wasn't something they could simply roll back, not without tampering with quite lot of the Residents. They knew Residents were also capable of completing quests, but this chain they hadn't expected to start for a while yet.
Digging into why, and how led them to the Temple of the Moon. For some reason they were creating, and selling special accessories for an alliance. Following the thread of who the alliance was with, it turned out to be the boss of the north zone, Nyolund. A boss no one would admit to putting into the game. The studio was generally fine with the developers sneaking in Easter Eggs, but this was on a scale far beyond that.
Shockingly according to Aina's logs the system itself had selected a mob it deemed worthy, and had upgraded it into a boss that took control of all the wolves in the zone. They'd spent hours debugging, and trouble-shooting to figure out how this had happened, only to realise that the system technically had the capability, and permission to do this. It just wasn't supposed to make such decisions, but it was unclear what they might break if they tried to revoke that permission.
Introducing a wolf boss to Nyolund had been put on hold in order to make the zone more friendly to levelling than Sholan was. But now that it was there, they couldn't really roll that back either, or remove it without disturbing the new balance that had been set up. If it hadn't formed an alliance with the elves, and made itself known, then maybe they could have quietly removed it, but that ship had sailed. And even if they got rid of this boss, they had no guarantee the system wouldn't simply do the same thing once again.
There was also the mystery of what it meant by having deemed a mob 'worthy', and how this mob had communicated with the elves in the first place. They could speak via Commune With Animals, but boss mobs were not supposed to be interested in that, so why had this one decided to be different?
The system had been acting oddly ever since the launch of the game. During beta the biggest problem had been the Residents' developing AI trying to act beyond the system's influence, and maybe that had triggered some sort of reaction in the system that had only started to show its symptoms once the game was past 1.0. It was hard to predict how the mobs' AI scripts had grown as well. It was quite possible that some of them had become anomalous in various ways.
Regardless they had been forced to agree with Aina's assessment. This wasn't really something they could easily 'fix'. There was just no telling what else might break if they tampered too much with this. It might not be doable without starting the entire world over, and no one really wanted to do that.
So the team was divided between those who feared this meant the game was falling apart, and those who were excited because such dynamic developments were already happening. The AI team had predicted that sooner or later things would start to take on a life of their own. It was just that no one had thought it would happen a mere month after launch.
In the end they'd had to make a quick official decision on where they stood on this, and the winning votes went towards accepting it. The Residents of Komeron seemed like they were excited about this, so the best decision was to just support them, and let this continue to develop naturally. For a certain definition of 'naturally'.
The players had so far reacted positively to their official stance, which was basically pretending this was what they had intended all along. Or at least not denying it should anyone make that assumption.
At least the corvids weren't spamming them with as many reports any longer, but the development in Hanoleav was still fuelling Kelly's desire to give the corvids the ability to speak to people. Everyone had a feeling that sooner or later she would get her way.
